Category: Politics

So this started as something someone asked me via PM on Facebook. Apparently, I’m a balanced and reasonable guy. I’d debate that some days.

But I’m always happy to discuss or debate any topic, as long as both sides are willing to be reasonable and actually discuss or debate and listen to each other. The idea of topics being off limits for polite company has, in my opinion, made for a lot of unnecessary division and partisanship in our society.

Please recognize that everything that follows is just that: my opinion. I do a lot of reading and I consume a lot of media to build and adjust and refine my opinions, but I can’t, and don’t try, to look at every possible source. Your mileage may vary. So…

Let’s leave the Clinton/Trump debate aside. I would have preferred her in the Whitehouse over him, but I would have far preferred almost anyone in the Whitehouse over him. He seems to me to be the logical conclusion of the essential self-centered, instant gratification, power for its own sake, screw everyone but me culture that seems to be trying to take over south of the border for the last few decades. Granting that she comes with a great deal of Clinton political baggage, she at least appears to fall on the side of valuing people as more than just tools to her own personal gratification, an idea which he doesn’t even pay lip service to.

But that election is long over and if its fallout will go on for at least a generation now, the fallout needs to be dealt with.

Kavanaugh is a problem himself, but he’s also a symptom of a much larger issue.

After this paragraph, I’m going to completely leave aside the multiple, and credible, allegations of sexual assault and poor behaviour from his high school and college years, which, in light of his refusal to even consider that he could ever have done anything untoward and lack of feeling for anyone who has been a victim, should disqualify him from any public office, and focus more on his professional qualifications and the process by which he got there.

Let’s be clear: he’s not qualified to be there. Aside from clearly lying under oath (and not just as part of the recent proceedings) and publicly displaying a temperament that doesn’t seem suitable to being a judge in the first place, he’s shown a tremendous political bias in his professional history, has shown a willingness on camera to dodge questions more effectively than most politicians, seems to believe that any action taken against him is part of the Clinton revenge conspiracy, and most of the jobs he’s held in his legal career haven’t had much or any of the scholarly components usually considered critical for the Supreme Court. A variety of legal professionals, some highly placed, and organizations hold that he isn’t qualified to be there.

At a higher level, Kavanaugh is the culmination of a decades long campaign on the far right of the American political and religious spectrums to gather power into a very few hands to make sure that all of the decision making is done in favour of those who are straight, white, christian, and male (currently something less than 25% of the US population, but somehow a majority in US politics at every level).

At this point, past the blocking of the previous government’s nomination process to steal it after the election, past the manipulated Senate rules to force the process to be resolved quickly, past the investigation that didn’t talk to either the accuser or the accused, past the 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh-related records sealed by the Whitehouse so that no one could read them unless they were hand selected by the Republican party, we’re left with the realization that the current Senate wouldn’t recognize an unbiased process if it shook them by the collective throat because it wouldn’t give them the result they want: control of the Supreme Court to roll back every advancement in rights for everyone who isn’t them to pre-1960s standards.

But something that’s almost as disturbing to me, I’ve found through learning about the process and what’s behind it south of the border, I realize I know practically nothing about the Canadian Supreme Court. Something I’ve only just begun to address by going to the Court’s website this morning, for the first time ever, to at least learn the names of the current sitting Justices.

More disturbing, I see the beginnings of the current political situation in the US trying to establish itself in Ontario.

Again, all opinions expressed here are mine. I am continually evolving. But my opinion on Kavanaugh appears to continually evolve in a direction that he shouldn’t be there and that the process putting him there should never have come to pass.

It is time to turn some of my creative energy to satire. I’ve dabbled in it here and there, but never for long and never seriously. There’s nothing wrong with the bit of slacktivism I’ve been doing, sharing memes sizes trying to stir people up here and there and starting or participating in online conversations as I see the need. But I need more, and I feel like, at this point, I have developed a bit of a talent for writing. If the satire only amuses me, that’s fine. If it only preaches to a small choir, that’s fine too. In either of those cases, it’s probably not worth a tremendous amount of time. But if just one person, or more than one person, or whole bunch of people gets irritated at something I satirize, maybe we can actually get some new discussion started about the things that are wrong with our society. At the moment, by our society, I primarily mean Ontario and the bigoted premier we seem to have elected and who seems to want to run the province if it were his own sandbox and with 19th century policies.

Not acceptable.

So, satire.

I feel like I want to start by taking my cue from Piet Hein, one of my favorite poets, famous for short, stabby verses in at least two languages, and starting during World War II. I’m not suggesting Ontario is currently like Nazi occupied Denmark in the early 1940s, but, to my eyes, much as south of the border, there are flavors of it in the wind.

Not in my Ontario.

However, I also have to recognize that live in the Internet age, and probably there are no underground newspapers are going to be willing to publish said satirical poetry. At least nothing with significant distribution. There is, however, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. And I can certainly find unflattering pictures of my targets in the huge public archives and attach my short, stabbing versus to them.

Usually, that’s the case. This morning, I’m less happy about it, at least in one specific instance.

This week, on apparently a variety of news media, our still-new provincial government followed through on a campaign promise that almost no one thought it would keep. In spite of everything, in spite of all the evidence that it was good for people, good for the economy, and good for the job market, the Ontario Progressive Conservative party appears to still disagree with the idea that raising the minimum wage was a good thing. And they disagree to the point where the minimum wage increase that was scheduled for January 1 of next year, just a little more than three months away, will not be happening. It is canceled.

Oh, there’s no legislation yet, but they’ve specifically announced the intent to “fix” the Liberal law that was making it happen.

I’ve had this argument gently with a number of people at work, but no one thought this government would shoot themselves in the foot. I have, mostly, being careful, particularly in business-related settings, to couch this in potential terms. What if? Still, they did make the promise to do it. I wonder if they’ll follow through.

Well, guess what? Our premier is an arrogant little sheet stain who refuses to let reality interfere with his beliefs.

I don’t know why this should surprise anyone, since he was clearly planning to ignore the rule of law by invoking the notwithstanding clause so he could have his way with Toronto City Council and screw over the people who hadn’t cooperated with him and his brother back in his councilman days.

But seriously, someone needs to remind Mr. Ford that the P in PC stands for Progressive.

Although, I suppose you could argue things mathematically. The PC party of Ontario has made tremendous amounts of progress since it took office. Really, it has.

It’s just all negative progress.

To switch back to English, I suppose that makes them the Regressive Conservatives, but that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, whether they voted for them or not.

Welcome to the new Ontario, where if you’re a rich white guy, you’ll do okay. Everyone else is fucked.

So, online and offline, and more than once each, I’ve been told that I’m getting too political. I also, apparently, though no specific examples have been given to me, occasionally offend someone.

I find the statement more interesting, but they both should be addressed in some way.

As to the ‘too political’, With the government we currently have in the province I live in, the attempted rising of the alt-right in my country, the cover ups, the social issues facing our society and the steadfast refusal of some people to accept some other people as human beings in their own right, I am probably only going to get worse from that of point you, and louder at the same time.

For the second point. if something I post or say offends you, I am, honestly, unlikely to be terribly concerned about that. The act of being offended on its own has very little weight in my eyes and it shouldn’t in yours, either. If you’re offended by something I say or post and want to have a discussion about it, that’s awesome. At least, it’s awesome so long as your intent is to actually have a discussion. I’m happy to engage with opinions backed up by logic and real information. If the extent of your argument is personal attacks and whining, I’m unlikely to take you seriously.

If you’re not interested in discussion, and the extent of the engagement you want to have is you offended me and demand apology, you should probably not bother because you’re not going to get one. You may get a response clarifying the intent of what I said earlier, but you are very, very unlikely to get that apology. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you won’t.

If your interest in social media is primarily funny memes, cat pictures, and so on, then enjoy it. I like those things to, and I share a few here and there, particularly Star Trek related ones, but, believe it or not, there is more to life than pictures and funny memes, even if they are Star Trek related. Enjoy your distractions. I like them too. But recognize they’re a distraction and that our society has pretty serious issues, and those issues are worth discussing or standing against.

“Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.” (Juvenal, approx. 100 CE)

It probably sounds much better in the original Latin poetic form, but it still strikes true and 1900 years later.

Bread and circuses. Keep the people fed and entertained and you can do whatever you want. We even have leaders who don’t think the bread is necessary and who are circuses, who think that because they’ve gathered to themselves some small amount of support or power that they can do what they want and force us to follow along.

There are people who agree with them, or who let themselves be convinced by the bread and circuses, but sadly for them, fortunately for the rest of us, we still live in a free and open society. As individuals, as people, we have the ability, and even the obligation, to speak out against those distractions and against what we see as wrong.

I have plenty of strong opinions:

People matter more than money.

Might dos not make right.

Fact and opinion are not equal.

Your preconceived biases don’t count as facts.

The science matters.

The world would be a better place without most of the religions currently in it.

Feel free to argue any or all of those, but you’ll need to back up with something more than just, “I don’t like what you said; it offends me.” You are free to not like anything I say or do, and I’m free to not worry over much about it. If I’m getting too political for you, you should probably snooze me, unfollow me, or even so far as to unfriend me.

I don’t post things with the intent to offend, I post with the intent to have share awareness and conversations. That I get surprisingly little conversation is unfortunate, but another symptom of our society, which is is flawed and broken in many ways.

But I firmly believe the overall trend is upward and that things will get better, but only if we are willing to talk to each other rather than yell at each other, and actually work to make things better. There are a lot of things I’m angry at in our society, and I don’t believe I’m the only one. Stay angry, but channel it into something productive. Talk to people.